Sony stops PlayStation TV shipments in Japan

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Sony has decided that the PlayStation TV is nearing the end of its life. The first hint being shipments of the device in Japan have ceased. It’s still on sale, but only as long as existing stocks last in Sony’s home territory. I suspect the same will happen in other territories soon.

As a PlayStation TV owner, I could/can see the potential Sony’s tiny gaming device had. Beside the ability to stream PS4 games to another TV in a different room, the PSTV allowed you to play PS Vita games without a Vita, and using a comfortable Dual Shock controller. On top of that, it had access to PSN and the digital games on offer there from the PS Vita and PSP libraries.

Why the PlayStation TV has failed to become popular is, for the most part, Sony’s own fault.

At launch the device was too expensive, costing $100. That wasn’t the end of your spend, though, as the PSTV required an expensive proprietary memory card and a DualShock controller, both of which added to the cost. You could buy a Value Pack, but it cost $150 and only included an 8GB memory card, which would be filled very quickly.

Then there were the games restrictions. Sure, you could play PS Vita games, but only approved ones. The list was small at first, but has grown slowly. Unfortunately, Sony hasn’t done a great job of advertising when new games were added, or reminded us the PSTV exists at all. It also didn’t help when a simple hack appeared allowing all PS Vita games to work, bringing up the question of why this hadn’t always been the case.